Trump, climate scams and arrests at the Scottish Parliament
November 21, 2024
A personal take on Extinction Rebellion Scotland’s latest action at the Scottish Parliament. The action targeted Peterhead Gas, the plans to expand gas facilities and bolt-on carbon capture and storage technology.
Imagine waking up early to take action at the Scottish Parliament whilst a shocked world and the environmental movement is processing the election of Trump. How did we time this so badly? Was this the definition of madness or the definition of defiance?
How do you feel, someone asked. Grim, I replied – defeated. A rebel messaged me: in reality, they said, the problem is the system, the face it wears is less consequential, and the systemic problems are the same today as they were last week. I had no time to argue with them because we were off. Two groups split-up and walking through the streets in the beautiful sunshine and unseasonal warmth.
As we approached the Parliament, there was something comical about watching two unsuspecting police chatting away whilst next to them, the first group of three activists were locking on. When they realised, cue the explosive response. Hands scrabbling on d-locks. A grab. Two activists manage to lock-on, one is dragged away.
Meanwhile, the keys to unlock the activists were delivered to parliament addressed to First Minister John Sweeney, Gillian Martin MSP, and Alasdair Allan MSP, along with a letter asking them to bring their keys to personally unlock an activist each.
Why did this action happen?
Energy company SSE and the fossil fuel giant Equinor have submitted a planning application to the Scottish Government. They want to build a new gas power plant next to the existing facilities at Peterhead Power Station.
Peterhead Power Station is already Scotland’s single biggest climate polluter. Expanding the facilities will be a climate disaster made in Scotland by the Scottish Government. Analysis by Carbon Tracker found the climate pollution could be as much as 5 times higher than the developers claim. SSE completely failed in its Environmental Impact Assessment to account for the pollution created by the extraction and transport of the gas that will be burned. This seems legally dubious. Worse, the application cobbles on some carbon capture and storage.
A fake climate solution loved by fossil fuel companies
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) at emission sources and then storing it in a suitable deep, underground location. It can also mean the removal of CO2 directly or indirectly from the atmosphere.
It has been much touted as a climate solution by those desperate to keep business as usual going.
Yet, despite $83 billion invested globally since the 1990s, carbon capture and storage has failed to cut emissions. No CCS project has ever reached its target CO2 capture rate. CCS has a long history of being over-promised and under-delivered. Not one single CCS project has ever reached its target CO2 capture rate. The IPCC said that even at its full known potential, CCS would only account for about 2.4 percent of the world’s carbon mitigation by 2030. It is a limited solution that should only be used for hard-to-abate industries such as steel or concrete.
Even Big Oil (secretly) thinks it’s rubbish, but they are delighted to take the subsidies for it. For them, it’s business as usual. They can keep on extracting fossil fuels, while claiming a magical technological solution is just around the corner.
A government corrupted
The plans for Peterhead Gas Station will lock us into burning fossil fuels for decades to come, trapping us at the mercy of volatile global gas prices. So when the consensus appears to be that CCS can only work in a limited capacity, why would the Scottish government place such a terrible bet on this?
The answer lies in who they are listening to. What do you think happens to a government’s objectivity when its MSPs hold 790 meetings with fossil fuel companies or their trade bodies since 2018? Might your head be a tad turned? Does your soul become a little tarnished, even corrupted in plain sight?
For Peterhead Gas, the Scottish Government has repeatedly refused to speak with any objectors, claiming that it would be inappropriate to discuss “a live planning application”. Yet ministers discussed the issue with the power station developers on at least 10 occasions, with no caution that this could prejudice the planning process.
Once, the Scottish Government talked a great game about climate leadership. But they postured on international stages rather than planned at the grass roots. They greenwashed rather than acted.
Are we holding them to unrealistic expectations? No. Peterhead Gas is a sign of the Scottish Government falling ever further behind. Germany is on track to meet its targets by 2030. Countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Estonia are hitting their 2030 targets early. They set a plan and did the hard work. Scotland didn’t.
Black sheets and arrests
Back at the Scottish Parliament, Police Scotland shrouded the protest with black screens, making it look like someone had died. They intercepted the letter to get the keys, and then spent twenty minutes trying to unlock the d-locks with the keys until they realised they were the wrong ones. (I mean come on, our actions always flirt with failure. But we are not going to deliver the right keys to security to unlock a lock-on protest).
In 2019 XR did a similar action called the ‘Five Keys, Two Futures‘. The ministers were quickly out that time. Not this time. The landscape of environmental protest has moved on. The official response from the Government sent to Extinction Rebellion Scotland a couple of days later was predictably pitiful and evasive, hiding behind process. Two rebels were arrested for Breach of the Peace.
So, what did this achieve? A lot of press. A banner in their eyeline. A moment where they are seen and it is noted. A representation of science and common sense that is not radical or extreme. They got the message.
Some people think that CCS is a last stand by the fossil fuel industry for their wealth and power (maybe try doing more renewables guys?). It may not feel like it to us, but for them, in the long-term, it is slipping away. It’s already been decided how the fossil fuel industry will be remembered by history.
The shiny-eyed disciples of millenarianism might joyfully race towards a climate apocalypse. The hopped-up right-wing libertarians may want to end the world rather than capitalism. But the polls and surveys tell you that most people want to solve the climate problem, even if we can’t always face the consequences. Even climate deniers need our empathy rather than hostility. Many deny out of guilt and fear, trying to regain control of turbulent forces. Sometimes it’s far easier to kill the messenger because accepting the message is just too much
There are two ways there will be a reckoning but a reckoning there will be. Either we pay the bill to solve this crisis, or nature sends increasingly costly bills borne by its merciless bailiffs of fire, water and chaos. The first way is getting more difficult, but it is still possible.
So we need to remember to keep things simple. Do what we can and worry less about what we can’t do. Remember the amazing things we have achieved so far, even though so much is stacked against us. Regen when it becomes too much. Smile at the trolls. Understand and reach out to those fearful for their jobs and livelihoods. Keep going for those who can’t. Tell the stories of those taking the hits on the climate frontlines.
Sometimes, when I am on an action and trying to ease doubts, I fancy that we will send out a message. Not to the media or the politicians or passerbys, important as they are, but to the future generations dealing with the reckoning. We did care and we fought for you.
Perhaps that’s too fanciful.
Let’s put it another way. At the start of the day, I felt defeated. By the end, it felt that picking up a banner 24 hours after the US election and walking to the Scottish Parliament was not an act of defeat.
Even if it did take me three days to make that banner and the bloody thing was confiscated by the police after twenty minutes.